Army pioneer heads to Army Cyber Command

Command Sgt. Maj. Sheryl Lyon hopes she’s eased the pathway for future female military leaders.

Command Sgt. Maj. Sheryl Lyon hopes she’s eased the path for future female military leaders.

After almost three years at U.S. Army Europe, Lyon is leaving for an assignment at Army Cyber Command in Virginia. Lyon was the army’s first female senior leader at a service component command. She will be the senior enlisted leader at Army Cyber Command, serving in the role of the command sergeant major.

“I hope that I’ve been able to help pave the way, that it’s based on capability for positions instead of gender or ethnicity or anything like that,” Lyon told Stars and Stripes.

Lyon, a trained intelligence analyst, believes she can “bring some knowledge and past experience that will help in that realm that will help advance it as well.”

Founded in 2010, Army Cyber Command is the cyberwarfare unit tasked with protecting Army computer systems and using hacking tools to support soldiers in the field. There will be an event to welcome Lyon in the coming weeks.

In terms of the numbers, there are currently roughly 976 generals and admirals spread across the military. Just 69 of them are women — 19 from the Army. The first female four star U.S. Army general was only just nominated in 2008.

The current Army Cyber Command leader, Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, was recently nominated by President Donald Trump to head the National Security Agency (NSA). Nakasone would replace the current NSA leader, Adm. Mike Rogers. Nakasone will also helm U.S. Cyber Command until its expected split from the NSA, in which case there will need to be two distinct positions.

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Threats

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure